Mathematics teacher training organization MathTrack has recently received an institutional designation from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to offer an apprenticeship based Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. This designation will help MathTrack toward achieving its mission of solving the math teacher shortage throughout the United States.
Earlier this year, MathTrack was recognized by the Federal Department of Labor as an apprenticeship program, giving people a work based pathway to becoming a licensed math teacher while on the job and earning. This has enabled MathTrack to attract over 150 new math educators to the Indiana math pipeline within the last 12 months.
According to Dr Kevin Berkopes, co-founder and CEO of MathTrack, there are many people who want to become teachers, but they lack a bachelor’s degree. Across the U.S. there are over 600,000 “paraeducators” working in schools without degrees, a workforce that has grown three times the rate of licensed teachers over the last two decades. In response, MathTrack is creating pathways for them to obtain the needed credentials to help solve the teaching crisis, particularly in mathematics.
Initially, MathTrack sought to partner with an established university to build the apprenticeship based degree program, and while progress was made with a few, it became clear to MathTrack that their understanding of the paraeducator student needs was unique. With this realization, MathTrack decided to start its own institution of higher education to build its own program to meet the needs of its targeted students.
MathTrack is now preparing to launch its first cohort of 25 paraeducators in its degree program for applied mathematics. These are passionate educators already employed at schools, but are not able to pursue a traditional degree pathway because of life’s demands. They need a pathway that is rigorous yet flexible enough to work within their various life demands.
MathTrack co-founder and chief revenue officer Nickolas Williams explains that the organization now has multiple pathways for people who are interested in becoming math teachers. If they have a bachelor’s degree, they can join MathTrack’s transition teaching program, allowing them to become a licensed math teacher in 12 to 15 months.
If they don’t have a bachelor’s degree, they can join the apprenticeship based degree program to obtain their degree, MathTrack will conduct an audit of their past credits or work experience and determine how much more they have to study before receiving the applied mathematics degree.
Licensed teachers can also join MathTrack’s professional development programs to obtain credits for their continuing professional education requirements. Williams says that MathTrack now covers all bases in providing a supply pipeline for math teachers to fill the huge gap in the educational system.
Dr Berkopes, who has taught math to third graders up to PhD students, says that there is a common misconception that the deeper the knowledge of math content one has the more effective at teaching math they will be. Dr. Berkopes says the last three decades of math research has realized a special type of professional math teaching knowledge that's beyond content knowledge alone, which is the unpacking of mathematics to be digested by students. This leads some people, who initially believe they are not good at doing math, to discover that they’re actually good at teaching math.
In the future, Dr Berkopes predicts that there will be growing acceptance of alternative educational pathways, such as those that MathTrack is pioneering.
“To us, it is clear that MathTrack is in a strong position to be a leader in the trends that are happening globally in higher education,” Dr Berkopes says. “Our priority is to stay in front with innovation to first solve the math teacher shortages and second to expand access to apprenticeship-based degree pathways.”
Media contact:
Name:Dr. Kevin Berkopes
Email:[email protected]
